Praise was used right after all
those things concerning our Lord. Full atonement, can it be? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Don't use that
word, ever. Don't ever use that word, except in conjunction with praising the Lord. It's blasphemy. It's taking the Lord's name and
dying. Don't do it. You're not ignorant of
that now. You never have been, but the world is. God will not
hold them guiltless who taketh his name in vain. Ignorance is not bliss. Blame. All right, let's look at Luke
24 again, all right? Now, our story is of two disciples
walking down the road to a town called Emmaus, and the risen, successful, sovereign,
effectual, accomplished, satisfied Redeemer. appears to them. The risen Lord appears to them,
but they don't know Him. They don't know who He is yet.
And there is so much to be seen here. If the Lord will give us
ears to hear and eyes to see. Alright, look at verses 13 and
14 again. Now behold, two of them went
that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem
about threescore furlongs, seven and a half miles is a long walk.
They're walking along. Verse 15, it came to pass that
while they communed together, they're walking along. They have
a long walk, seven and a half miles. How far is that? That's the Farrum. That's like
walking to Farrum College, all right? You'd have a lot of time
to talk with your brother. So they're walking along, two
of them. This could have been you and me, but it could have
been Henry and John there, walking along. Long walking. They're talking
of, as you can imagine, all that had just happened the few days
before. They're talking about his crucifixion. It's awful. They're talking about
his death. None like it. They're talking
about stories they just heard that he was alive. Is this true? Oh, they had lots
to talk about. And it says in verse 15 that
while they were reasoning, Jesus himself drew near and walked
with them. They were reasoning. They were
reasoning this thing out. They were trying to put two and
two together. But, you know, understanding doesn't come from
reasoning, does it? Understanding comes when the
Lord Himself reveals the truth. You don't figure these things
out by human reasoning. Well, these were two disciples
now. These were two believers. And they are weak. Now listen
to this. Two disciples, two believers, I believe there were, Cleophas
and who the other one was, we don't know. It's not important.
Could have been any more. Two believers and they're weak.
They're unbelieving. They've forgotten, John. John,
they've forgotten what all the Lord said. And they're in distress
and they're perplexed and they're troubled and they're confused
and it's like they It's like they didn't know anything. It's
like they didn't believe anything. But these two were gathered together,
and they were talking of their Lord. They were talking of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They were gathered together,
and in his name, these two were gathered together in his name,
walking along, and just like he said, I'll be with you, where
two of you are gathered. I'll be right there in a minute."
And he did. They didn't know it though. He was there. I love that phrase. He went with them. They didn't
know who he was, but he was with them. Though they didn't know it, he
was with them. Poor, ignorant, sinful as they were, he was with
them. And he's about to make himself
known to them. And these two fellows represent
many things. They represent all of God's elect,
all of God's chosen ones, all of God's children whom He reveals
Christ to, whom He reveals the gospel to. He's going to make
Himself known to them. Though they don't know Him yet,
and though they're trying to reason things out, though they're
ignorant of why Christ came, why He died, where He is now,
they were ignorant of all these things. But there he is elect,
and he's going to reveal himself to them. They're not going to
stay in darkness, even as others. But our Lord, who is light, is
going to open their understanding. This is what our Lord does for
every one of his own. So I know these are two of his
own. And our Lord asks a question now. They're walking along, and
our Lord asks a question. Now, our Lord never asked questions
in the Scripture for information's sake. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. God doesn't learn anything. He knoweth all things. He foreknoweth
all things. God is wisdom personified. Christ is wisdom personified. And though, you know, he understood
their thoughts afar off. He knew, like David said, their
thoughts. There's not a word in my mouth,
David says, you don't know it all together. You know my thoughts
afar off. You don't understand my down
city, my upright. Where can I flee from you? You know all about
me. He knew what they were thinking
and what they were talking about. But he said, he asked them questions. And the reason our Lord asks
questions of his people is to reveal to us our ignorance, to
reveal to us our unbelief, to reveal to us our sin. Adam,
the first question God ever asked a man, Adam, where art thou? You can't hide from God. They
were hiding behind a tree or something. It may have been a
rock. And God's not, He knows where
they are. He's not asking where they are.
He's saying, look at you now. Where are you now? What have
you done now? Look at what you've got. Where
are you now, Adam? Are you as God's Eve? Satan said you'd be as God's
Eve. Are you? Where are you now? in sin and
darkness and misery and corruption and fear and trepidation. Where
are you? So that they would realize. Jacob. Oh, I love that story. When Jacob,
it says he was lying there one night and all of a sudden a man
wrestled with him. A man. That was the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. Same one who asked Adam, where
are you? Came to Jacob. And comes to all
sons of Jacob and said, What's your name? Well, Johnny came looking for
him. He knew who he was. He's looking for Jacob. What's your name? Jacob. Confess what you are. A cheat. And our Lord asked this question
to these disciples and to us. First, look at it. Verse 16,
verse 17. He said unto them, what manner
of communications are these that you have one to another? What
are you talking about as you walk? Why are you sad? What are you talking about and
why are you sad? What are you talking about and why are you sad? Now, you know, if our thoughts
were right, if our speech and our conversation were always
of Scripture and grace and truth and all, we'd never be sad. You ever think about that? We
wouldn't be sad. We'd rarely be sad anyway. And
this poor fellow named Cleophas, I kind of think he's related
to Peter. He spoke up real fast. Cleophas
answered. Verse 18. Cleophas said unto him, Art thou
a stranger in Jerusalem? You haven't known the things.
Don't you know what's happened here? Don't you know what's happened
here? Are you a stranger in these parts? Yeah. Yeah, he is. He's strange to this world, all
right. But no, Cleopas, you're the one that's estranged right
now. Cleopas, if he answered him,
he said, no, Cleopas, you're the one that seems to be the
stranger to the covenant of grace. You seem to have forgotten all
that the prophets have said. Cleopas, you're the one who seems
to be a stranger to the fact that Christ must suffer, that
Christ did exactly what was determined before for Him to do, that He
died exactly according to the Scriptures. Every jot and tittle
of the Scriptures was fulfilled in the condemning and the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It done Him exactly like. Cleopas,
you're the one that's a stranger to the truth. Cleophas, you're
the one that's a stranger to how God saves sinners. He didn't
come to establish a kingdom in this world. Cleophas, you're
the stranger. And the truth is strange to you,
but I'm going to reveal it to you. So the Lord says, but the
Lord says, has him just keep condemning himself. Verse 19,
the Lord says, Cleopas said, are you a stranger
here? Don't you know what has happened around here? What things? You tell me. And then he starts talking about
this Jesus. And Brother Henry, this is a
picture. This is a picture of every son of Adam who doesn't
know the Lord of glory. Who doesn't know the gospel.
Who doesn't know the truth. What this man says is a picture
of man's ignorance concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's his answer. What
then? Who are you talking about? What
are you talking about? What happened here? What happened here? Well, Cleophas
answers, verse 19, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, the man. The
man Jesus. Have you heard of him? Jesus
of Nazareth. Well, he was a prophet. A prophet,
Cleopas. Just a prophet. He was a prophet. Read on. He was a prophet. Mighty
indeed. Mighty. Just mighty. Just another
powerful man. And word. Oh, he was mighty in
word. Mighty in word. He is the Word. This man is confused, isn't he?
Mighty in Word. Yeah, he's mighty in Word. What
he said. He said some good things. Mighty in Word, Jesus. Before
God and all that, but before God? He is God. And verse 20, he goes on. The
chief priests and our rulers delivered him. Did they now? Who delivered him up? Oh, this poor ignorant fellow.
They delivered him to be condemned to death. And they have crucified
him. Oh, Cleophas. He just doesn't know, does he?
He just doesn't know. He's just forgotten that Christ
said, no man takes my life from me. He's forgotten all the times
they tried to apprehend him. Could not. His time was not yet.
He'd forgotten how he said, this commandment have I received of
my Father to lay down my life and take it up again. He'd forgotten
all that the Lord had said. That the Father delivered him
up. Well, read on. And they said, verse 21, Cleopas
said, we trusted, we hoped, we thought, we thought that it had
been He. We thought it had been He. It is He, Cleopas. It is. He it is. We thought it had been He. We
thought it had been He. Cleophas, it has been. It is
He. It was He. It is He. It ever shall be. It
is He. He it is. We thought He said,
read on, verse 21, we thought it had been He which should have
redeemed Israel. He did, Cleophas. He did. But not that nation over in the
midst. That dirty little town, that dirty little state called
Israel over in the Middle East. But Israel, spiritual Israel.
He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but inwardly. And
so all Israel shall be saved. Why? How? He did it. It is. He's the Redeemer. He redeemed
Israel. We thought He'd redeem Israel. We thought He'd redeem
Israel. Read on, verse 21. And beside
all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
Yeah, and here he is. And yea, and certain women of
our company made us astonished. They were early at the sepulchre,
and they found not his body. And they came saying that they'd
seen a vision of angels, but said he was a liar. Oh, they didn't believe a few
women, did they? Silly women. What do women know? Oh, it's significant that our
Lord appeared to these women first, isn't it? I thought about this. Do you
know who our Lord appeared to first? Do you know who the first
human being was to hear from the Lord of Glory to tell of
his resurrection from the grave? Do you know who the first human
being who heard from his very mouth? Mary Magdalene. Not his mother. Mary Magdalene,
the chief of sinners. the worst person, the chief of
sinners. Our Lord came to the chief of
sinners with the greatest of news. And it's a woman. Well, it's
not permitted for a woman to speak. She can go home and tell
everybody, I've seen the Lord. But they're not going to believe
it, though one told you. You know, I thought about this.
I thought about Hebrews 12, which said, you know, now think about
the whole story here, everybody. These disciples, these disciples had seen, just
saw our Lord actually brutally murdered, they thought. They saw them put his body in
a grave and roll a huge stone over it and lay there three days,
three days. They saw him dead. They saw his
body butchered beyond recognition. All his blood, a pool of it around
the ground. He's dead. If we had been there, we thought
he's dead. And they put him in that grave,
and now they're walking along, and they think he's dead. And
here a woman comes, a woman. She went to the grave, and Mary
came back and said, he's not dead, he's alive. He's dead. We saw him, Mary. So isn't their unbelief somewhat
excusable? Isn't it? We'd have done the
same thing. A couple of women came back. They were all distraught.
They were grief-stricken. They come back, a couple of women,
and say, He wasn't in the tomb. He's alive. We saw it. But I thought about this. What
about us? We're in it. Our unbelief is
inexcusable. Hebrews 12 says we're encompassed
with a gray cloud of witnesses. Men and women have been saying
this for 2,000 years now. He's not dead. He's alive. And you know our Lord has compassion.
Our Lord has compassion. He knows our frame. I'm so glad.
I'm so glad. When our Lord said what He did
to them fools, it wasn't like you and I would say it. No. It was in compassion. It was
understanding. Our Lord knows our frame. He
knows our sin, our unbelief. And though it's inexcusable,
He has compassion. Look at verse 25 now. They didn't believe these women.
And certain of them, verse 24, certain of them, they continued
telling our Lord this. Certain of them which were with
us, Peter, went to the sepulchre and, you know, he found it like
they said, an empty tomb. They found an empty tomb, but
they didn't see him. We don't know where he is. Then he said. Then he. He it is. And he said. Now here's our message. Our whole message is right here. Then he said unto them, O fool,
O fool. You see, our Lord can call us
a fool, can't he? He tells us don't call somebody
a fool. Don't call your brother a fool.
You're just as foolish as he is. Don't call him a fool. But he can call us a fool. Because we are. He calls it like
it is, doesn't he, Nancy? Huh? Fool. That's what we are,
aren't we? Fool. Man is without excuse. You know a man's a fool? A man's a fool. A fool that said
no God. A fool's not interested in God.
A fool doesn't believe God's Word. A fool doesn't give any
Credence to God's Word. Fool is more interested in what
man has to say than what God's Word. Man's a fool, Dan. Man
is a fool. He's easily fooled by everything
and anything. He's fooled by what he sees.
He's fooled by what he hears. He's fooled by himself, his own
foolish heart. He's fooled by Satan, sin, self. He's a fool. Man's a fool. And
I've played the fool. And I'm still a fool. Aren't
you? Our Lord can say that, and we
need it said. Fool? Are you so foolish? And slow to believe. Look at
this, verse 25. And slow of heart to believe. There's the problem. Out of the
heart are the issues of life. Oh, you believe in your head,
don't you? I believe God's sovereign. Now, here's where you believe. I'll never forget old brother
Jack Shanks in that Texas drawl of his saying, we don't have
to believe in the sovereignty of God. If we believed from the heart,
we wouldn't be a fool. We wouldn't play the fool so
much. If we believed from the heart, the head doesn't accomplish
anything. The heart does. The flow of the
heart. to believe. Believe what? All that the prophets said? All that the prophets have spoken?
Oh, that's the old Bible. We don't need it. Oh, my. If you don't know what the prophets
said, you don't know what that prophet said. If you don't know
what the prophets said from Genesis to Malachi, you don't know who
that prophet is. You don't know that he ended
all prophecy. You don't know that he's the
spirit of prophecy. You don't know that he made an
end to all prophecy. Oh, that's the old Bible. We're
not concerned with that anymore. Needn't know and believe what
the prophets have said. Well, you know, man is to be
blamed. Man is to be condemned. Man is
willfully ignorant. Man is willfully ignorant. rejects the truth. Man rejects
the God of the old Bibles, he calls it, the Old Testament.
He rejects him, thumbs down, and now says God's different.
God's nothing but love. God is not like he was. God is
now like this. Fools, slow to believe all that
the prophets said, because Malachi said, I am the Lord and I change
not. Man is to be blamed. He doesn't
believe the prophets, and so he didn't believe that prophet.
But God, God who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith
he loves some of these fools, even when they're dead in sin,
quickens them together. It's by grace, you say. By grace, you say, through faith,
and that's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Now, our
Lord is going to reveal the truth to these two ignorant, blind,
fools, unbelieving fools. He's going to quicken them. How
is he going to do it? How is he going to do it? How does the
Lord quicken his own? How does the Lord open their understanding?
How does the Lord? Is it a vision? Is it a sign?
Does he perform a miracle? No. He preaches the word to them,
the same word you and I hear. open their understanding, to
reveal himself, to reveal the truth. Christ himself appears
to them. Christ himself reveals himself
to them. And so it is with every one of
his own. Christ comes. And though we know it not. Look
at verse 26 now in our text. Verse 26. He says this. Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things? Ought not Christ to have suffered
this thing? O fools and slow of heart to believe all that
the prophets said. What did the prophets prophesy?
What did the prophets say of Christ? That he would come set
up an earthly kingdom? No. What did the prophet Isaiah
say would happen to the Christ? Read it! Say he's wounded and
bruised, smitten and afflicted, cut off from the land of the
living. What did David say? He was crucified, all his bones,
you could see all his bones, encompassed with dogs. What did
the prophet say? Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things? Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things? Huh? Christ? Who is the Christ? Why did Jesus
Christ come? You know the world doesn't know
this. The world doesn't know this, people. The world doesn't
know why. The Lord Jesus Christ came. Gladys,
the world doesn't know it. They think Jesus, the helper,
the healer, the friend, that that's why he came. He came to
live a good life. He came to heal some blind folks
and to try to show people the way, you know, to try to get
people in the notion of loving God and following and serving
God and being like him. And he failed and they killed
him. buried him and he went back to heaven and now he's walking
the banisters hoping somebody will let him have his way and
that something he did would accomplish something that wasn't in vain.
Hope not Christ who hath suffered these things. Yes, it was written
from Genesis 3.15. to when God first preached the
gospel to the first sinners, when God first took an innocent
animal and slit its throat, poured out the soul-redeeming blood
of an innocent victim, and skinned it, and covered those naked rebels
called sinners with that robe. God said it from the very beginning,
Christ is coming to suffer. He's coming to be a substitute. He's coming not to be a martyr,
but to be a substitute. He's coming not to show us the
way, but to be the way. He's coming not to show us how
to live, but to give us life or you're dead. He's coming to slit His own throat
and pour out His own blood for the remission of our sins. He's
coming to skin Himself. To take off that righteous robe
that He worked out for thirty-three years and wrap it around the
worst of sinners. All His people covered in one
robe. So that God can accept them. Ought not Christ the sent one, the
Messiah, the Redeemer, the Savior, sent to save his people from
their sins? He didn't come to deliver them
from Roman tyranny. He came to deliver them from
satanic tyranny. He didn't come to deliver them
from an oppressive government. He came to deliver them from
their sins. He didn't come to set up an earthly
kingdom. He said, My kingdom's not of
this world. If it were, I'd call ten thousand
angels, and they wouldn't put me on a tree. I'd burn this earth
up. I'd snuff it out. I didn't come
to set up an earthly kingdom. My kingdom's not of this world,
he said. Ought not Christ to suffer these
things? He came to save our souls.